Syrian troops fire into Turkey in clash with refugees

1of6The sister, right, and an unidentified relative mourn for Ali Shaaban, a television cameraman working for Al-Jadeed TV who was shot dead on the Lebanon-Syria border, at their home in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 9, 2012. Shaaban was killed when the channel's film crew came under fire in the border area of Wadi Khaled, the channel's head of news said. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)Photo: Bilal Hussein

2of6This undated photo provided by the family shows Ali Shaaban, a Lebanese television cameraman who was killed while working on the Syria-Lebanon border Monday, April 9, 2012. Shaaban, a cameraman for the Al Jadeed television station, was filming in Lebanon's northern Wadi Khaled area when a bullet pierced his chest, Lebanese security officials said. The gunfire came from the nearby Syrian village of Armouta, the officials said. (AP Photo/Family of Ali Shaaban)Photo: Anonymous

3of6A relative mourns for Ali Shaaban, a television cameraman working for Al-Jadeed TV who was shot dead on the Lebanon-Syria border, at the family's home in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 9, 2012. Shaaban was killed when the channel's film crew came under fire in the border area of Wadi Khaled, the channel's head of news said. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)Photo: Bilal Hussein

4of6Relatives mourn for Ali Shaaban, a television cameraman working for Al-Jadeed TV who was shot dead on the Lebanon-Syria border, at their home in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 9, 2012. Shaaban was killed when the channel's film crew came under fire in the border area of Wadi Khaled, the channel's head of news said. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)Photo: Bilal Hussein

5of6A woman is comforted as she mourns for her son Ali Shaaban, a television cameraman working for Al-Jadeed TV who was shot dead on the Lebanon-Syria border, at their home in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 9, 2012. Shaaban was killed when the channel's film crew came under fire in the border area of Wadi Khaled, the channel's head of news said. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)Photo: Bilal Hussein

6of6AbdulRahman Al-Atiq, a newly arrived Syrian refugee from Idlib province, Syria, seen in a refugee camp in Reyhanli, Turkey, Monday, April 9, 2012. Syrian forces fired across the border Monday into a refugee camp in Turkey, wounding at least five people as a U.N.-brokered plan to end more than a year of violence this week all but collapsed, authorities said. (AP Photo/Germano Assad)Photo: Germano Assad

BEIRUT - The deadly confrontation between Syria and opposition groups spilled into Turkey for the first time Monday as Syrian forces fired across the border near a refugee camp, casting a further pall over prospects for a U.N. peace plan due to be put into effect this week.

The shooting killed two Syrian refugees and injured at least 23 people, including a Turkish police officer, near the southern Turkish town of Kilis.

Residents of the camp reached by telephone said bullets had ripped through their prefabricated shelters, shattering windows and spreading panic. "Even the camp isn't safe anymore," said Ahmad, a refugee who used only one name out of concern of repercussions in Syria.

A senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Syria's ranking diplomat had been summoned and given a harsh message about Turkey's "irritation" with the episode. There was no immediate comment from Syria.

"It is not sufficient reason for military action by itself," said Cengiz Candar, the dean of Turkish analysts of Arab affairs. "But the likelihood of Turkish military action is not as dim as it was a week ago." The shooting will undoubtedly be used to buttress Turkey's call for a buffer zone inside Syria to protect civilians.

Turkey was once one of the closest allies of President Bashar Assad's Syrian government. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan became an early and harsh critic of Syria's crackdown on protesters last year, and Turkey has since taken in thousands of fleeing Syrians - as well as rebel leaders and members of ragtag militias that have gathered under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

On a broader front, diplomatic efforts also faltered. After agreeing to a peace plan negotiated under U.N. auspices, the Syrian government on Sunday announced new conditions for withdrawing its forces from major population centers by Tuesday and carrying out a cease-fire by Thursday.

The clash on the Turkish border was among the most dramatic violence. Accounts pieced together from the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the refugee camp suggested that it started early Monday when Syrian insurgents attacked government soldiers at or near a Syrian border post.

"We see the barbed wire with our own eyes from here - they're just around 200 meters away - so we saw the clashes," said Ibrahim Harmoosh, a camp resident reached by telephone. "We started chanting 'God is great' when we saw them fighting, so they shot at us."

A group of refugees trying to cross were caught in the gunfire; 21 were wounded, including two who died in a hospital in Kilis, according to the accounts.

Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said the Syrian shooters had also hit at least four people inside the camp: two Syrian refugees, a Turkish policeman and a Turkish interpreter.

Addressing another fatal cross-border shooting, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the death of Ali Shaaban, a Lebanese cameraman for the television station Al Jadeed.

Accounts from the station suggested plainclothes Syrian security officers fired repeatedly at their car in the Wadi Khaled area of Lebanon after seeing them filming. State-run Syrian television blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the death.